For Staff

You are here

NCAR Library joins open access movement

September 15, 2009 | In early September, UCAR passed the Open Access Policy, heralding in a new era of community access to our scholarship. Under the new procedures, all UCAR authors who publish peer-reviewed articles or other scholarly materials will deposit final versions in an NCAR Library repository known as OpenSky.

OpenSky will give UCAR staff and the broader community enhanced access to the organization's wealth of research. The full OpenSky website will be launched in June 2010 as part of NCAR's 50th anniversary celebration. NCAR Library staff will visit individual labs and divisions to discuss changes, invite input, and ensure that this new policy will not be overly burdensome.

The open access movement is a response to multiple drivers, including the accelerated pace of scientific research, new vehicles for scholarly communication, significant increases in journal subscription prices, and the limits on access imposed by those subscriptions. Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the National Institutes of Health have enacted similar policies to ensure greater access to the scholarly record.

"This updated policy is especially timely because it will not only support broader access to, and the impact of, our scholarship, but it will do so at a critical time for atmospheric science research," says NCAR Library director Mary Marlino. "I can think of no better way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NCAR than to formalize our longstanding commitment to open science, open access, and open data."